The Present Disclosure relates, generally, to a connector for cards, and, more particularly, to a highly reliable card connector having a simple structure, but yet being capable of securely retaining the card, is compact in size and can be easily manufactured at reduced cost.
Traditionally, electronic equipment may be equipped with card connectors for use with various types of memory cards. In recent years, as electronic equipment is reduced in size and price, easily manufactured card connectors having simple structures, and compact in size with reduced cost, have been proposed. An example is found in Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-146166.
FIG. 8 shows a traditional card connector. In FIG. 8, a housing 811 for the card connector possesses flat-plate-like bottom wall member 811b; deep-end wall member 811a, erected from and extending along the front edge of bottom wall member 811b; and side wall member 811c, extending in the front-back direction along the left and right sides of bottom wall member 811b. 
On bottom wall member 811b, a plurality of terminal-accommodating openings 811e are formed in a horizontally aligned manner. In each terminal-accommodating opening 811e, arm member 851d of terminal 851, as well as contact member 851b connected to the tip of arm member 851d, are accommodated. Terminal 851 is molded so as to be integrated with housing 811. In other words, housing 811 is formed by filling a resin in the cavity of a metal mold within which terminal 851 is preliminarily set. Thereby, terminal 851 is integrally mounted onto housing 811, with the main body buried within bottom wall member 811b, arm member 851d and contact member 851b exposed within terminal-accommodating opening 811e, and tail member 851c protruding from the rear edge of bottom wall member 811b. 
First fixating metal fitting 852 and second fixating metal fitting 853 are also integrally molded with housing 811, in a similar manner to terminal 851. Moreover, when the tip of a memory card (not shown in FIG. 8) is inserted into housing 811, a contact pad provided on the back side of the memory card comes in contact with contact member 851b of terminal 851, and thus conduction takes place.
However, in a traditional card connector, because only the back side and the right/left side surfaces on the tip of the memory card are supported by housing 811, it is not possible to retain the memory card in a secure manner. Thus, in the case in which electronic equipment onto which the card connector is mounted receives some impact, for example, the position of the memory card may shift, the contact pad of the memory card and contact member 851b of terminal 851 may lose mutual contact, or the whole memory card may become detached from the card connector.